---
title: "Hawk Collective 2890 — Our Story"
tags:
  - onboarding
  - 2890
  - team
  - history
  - identity
type: training-module
track: entry
owner: 2890

growth: tree
---

# Hawk Collective 2890 — Our Story

## Who We Are

Hawk Collective 2890 is Hickory High School's robotics team. We compete in the FIRST Chesapeake District. We are builders, programmers, designers, welders, machinists, and strategists. We're a team that believes in showing up for each other and leaving things better than we found them.

We're not the biggest team. We're not the richest team. But we've been at this since 2009, and we're still showing up.

**Rookie year:** 2009 — sixteen years and counting
**Location:** Hickory High School, Chesapeake, Virginia
**School address:** 1996 Hawk, Chesapeake VA 23322 — phone: 1-757-421-HAWK
**Competition area:** Chesapeake District (Virginia/Maryland)

## Why "Collective"

Most teams call themselves "The Hawks" or "Team 2890." We say Hawk *Collective*.

"Collective" is what we believe: the team is bigger than any one person. If one of us wins, we all win. If one of us is struggling, we all step up. The robot doesn't get built by a star — it gets built by a team.

When the 2009 senior class picked that name, they were saying something true about themselves. They knew they'd built something bigger than their own experience. The name stuck because the idea behind it was right.

## How We Got Here

### 2009 — The Beginning

A group of Hickory students looked at what other schools were doing and decided they wanted in. No robotics program existed at the school. No shop, no tools, no real budget, no experience.

What they had was a gymnasium they could use for storage, a salvage yard of mechanical parts, and six weeks to build a robot from nothing. They didn't know what they were doing. They did it anyway.

That original team of maybe 10 students is the reason you're reading this now. They made the space for everyone who came after.

### 2010–2015 — The Learning Years

These were the years of figuring it out. How to build something that doesn't fall apart. How to program it so it actually does what you want. How to compete without falling apart when things go wrong.

The team survived on bake sales, donations from local businesses, and the kind of stubbornness that comes from not knowing any better. Budget was nonexistent. Every tool was earned. Every competition was a road trip in someone's parents' van.

These were also the years that built the culture. The older students who figured things out started teaching the younger ones. The idea that you help the person next to you — that you don't hoard knowledge — started here. It's still how we operate.

### 2016–2020 — The Growth

The team got real. Students started bringing their younger siblings. The school started putting real money into the shop. Mentors from industry started showing up — engineers from the naval shipyard, machinists from local manufacturing, teachers who saw what this team was actually building in students.

This is when the team stopped being "some kids in a gym with a robot" and started being what it is today. The shop got actual tools. The team got actual space. The expectations got higher.

### 2021–Present — What You Joined

The team that exists right now, today. We've got a culture of showing up, learning out loud, and not quitting when it gets hard. Seniors who came in as freshmen learned to weld, code, and design because someone before them decided to teach instead of just doing it themselves.

We're still not the biggest or the richest team in the district. But we've got something that matters: a team that believes the person next to them deserves what they know.

## How We're Organized

### Students Run This

Not metaphorically. Actually.

Students make the real decisions on design, build strategy, competition moves, and team priorities. Mentors teach, guide, keep people safe, and share what they've learned. But the work belongs to the people doing it.

If you want to own a system on the robot — electrical, mechanical, code — you can. You just have to learn the fundamentals first and prove you won't break something expensive on a guess. The point of this team is to make you capable, not dependent.

Every senior on this team should be able to teach what they know. That's how we get better.

### The Roles

| Role | What It Means |
|------|--------------|
| **Build** | Mechanical — welding, machining, assembly, field setup. If it moves or holds something, Build makes it happen. |
| **Electrical** | Power and sensing — wiring, pneumatics, battery management, sensor integration. The nervous system and circulatory system of the robot. |
| **Programming** | Robot code, vision systems, autonomous routines, driver station setup. The brain of the robot. |
| **Scouting** | Data and strategy — watching other teams, analyzing match data, informing alliance selection. Intelligence for the competition. |
| **Media** | Team branding, documentation, outreach. How the world sees us. |

You can do more than one. Most people do. Nobody starts knowing everything.

## What We Expect From You

**Show up.**

Consistency beats talent. The person who never misses a meeting will outlast the genius who shows up when they feel like it. You don't have to be the best builder or the fastest coder on day one. You just have to keep showing up.

**Ask questions.**

Every expert on this team was once a beginner who asked. There are no stupid questions in this shop. There are only questions you didn't ask and now something's broken. If you're confused about how something works, ask the person next to you. If they're busy, wait and ask a mentor. If you still don't understand, ask again.

**Admit when you're stuck.**

"I don't know" is not a weakness. It's the starting line for learning. The only thing that will get you in real trouble is pretending you know something you don't. Nobody is going to yell at you for not knowing something. They will yell at you for breaking something expensive because you didn't ask.

**Help others.**

If you know something that someone else doesn't, you haven't earned the right to keep it to yourself. The person who helps others doesn't lose their advantage — they strengthen the whole team. A team where everyone shares what they know is a team that wins.

**Take care of the space.**

The shop, the tools, the robots, the field elements — these belong to the team. Not to you. Not to any one person. Leave them better than you found them. If something is broken, tell someone. If something is about to break, tell someone. If you borrowed something, return it.

## What We Believe

> We show up. We learn out loud. We don't quit.

This isn't a motto. It's how we operate when things get hard.

If something breaks, we fix it. If someone is behind, we catch them up. If the game is hard, we figure out a way. If we lose, we shake hands and come back smarter. If something isn't working, we don't pretend it is — we acknowledge it and we solve it.

You will fail at something on this team. Everyone does. The difference between the person who grows and the person who quits is that one of them keeps going after failing.

## The Gear We Run

Team 2890's current standard drivetrain is **MK4i swerve modules** with **NEO Vortex** motors. Here's what that means:

**MK4i swerve** means each wheel can steer and drive independently. It's a more complex drivetrain than tank drive, but it gives you directional control that's worth it for most game tasks.

**NEO Vortex** is the motor. Made by REV Robotics. Fast, powerful, and reliable when configured correctly.

Each motor runs a **SPARK Flex** controller, which handles the CAN communication between the motor and the roboRIO (the robot's main computer).

For vision, we use **PhotonVision** with **Limelight** sensors. This lets the robot see the field, locate itself, and aim at targets automatically.

If you don't know what any of that means yet — good. That's what the garden is for.

---

**Next:** [[youth-safety|Youth Safety]] — read this before you touch anything in the shop